Saturday, November 15, 2014

This is fun and tasty dish, works great with BBQ
or when camping, we like it anytime and can be used for breakfast, lunch or supper.
I say that about most all of my dishes because I am lazy and if I make too much
– hey, eat some more for the next meal!

Boil two potatoes
and two eggs. The potatoes should be baseball size or a tad more, leave the
skins on. I leave the skins on for two reasons.

First – I tell
people it is healthy that way.

Second –I hate
peeling potatoes it takes me away from the TV for way too long.

Drain the water from the potatoes and pour in a
can of red beans. Peel the eggs and set aside

Add salt, pepper, paprika, sage, and a touch of
sugar. (Some like a touch of BBQ sauce)

Continue to stir and let the entire concoction
heat through.

Serve on a plate with a boiled egg sliced in half.

This makes a serving for two – one potato and half
a can of beans and one boiled egg per plate.

Sounds funny tastes great – try it, best side dish
ever with pulled pork or brisket, beats the heck out of those canned baked
beans.

Pile it on the plate knock back a couple of Iced
Teas or diet sodas and enjoy, YUM!

Monday, September 15, 2014

What’s that? A
cake with Jam in it you say!

I do not often post recipes
for baked goods, I am a BBQ and smoker type of guy, but today am making an exception.
This one is old school, really old school, could have been made by my great-grandmother
back in the 1870s. A Jam Cake and you saw it here first, well maybe not,
since it has been around forever. Wow a cake made with Jam, bet you can hardly
wait for this one. Lots of calories, but great taste, so many calories maybe
the previous sentence should have said, “Bet you can hardly weight for this one. Sorry, couldn’t help
myself.

It’s not even hard to
make, letting this old cowboy cooker make it in only about, well forget that,
it is easy to make, but not quick, no sir, not quick at all.

Here
is what you need

Ø1 1/2 cup butter(You can
use margarine but they didn’t have it in the old days)

Ø2 cups sugar

Ø6 eggs

Ø3 1/2 cups flour – double sifted (Today you can use cake flour if
you have it)

Ø6 tablespoons buttermilk (Or make your own with milk and a bit of
vinegar)

Ø2 cups raspberry or strawberry jam (I used raspberries as we have
a great and productive patch out back, hey we also have strawberries out back,
still producing. Trouble is I eat them as I pick, they never)

Put
It Together

ØStir-up soft butter. Add sugar, not too fast, I like to pour it in
all at the same time but it doesn’t work to well here. Keep stirring and
beating until creamy. Toss in the eggs. Then add, slowly stirring the already mixed
up dry stuff. Forgot to tell you to mix up dry stuff up above. As you are doing
this keep adding the buttermilk. Do this all very slowly, it took me 15 minutes
to get it right. When you have it all mixed add the jam, I used frozen berries
instead. Thaw them in fridge overnight then add. I chop them up soom first so
the pieces will not be too large.

Ø
Pour into paper cupcake holders

ØBake at 350-375 about 15 min – or until they look done to you.

ØThese are great with your favorite muffin or cupcake frosting

Note
to You Bakers

There is a secret to these little cakes. Age them some – don’t eat
it until tomorrow or the next day. I did eat one as soon as it was cool. Okay
two – three.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

This stuff is so easy that anyone can do it. That’s why
I’m posting this, even this old food cooker can get this one right. The best
part is that it can be made on the backyard grill or out at a favorite picnic
area, mine is Guernsey State Park. Everything tastes better cooked outside.

I like to buy the chicken breasts in the portion
size bag. I usually buy the giant bag of 6 oz. breasts. Frozen chicken tenders
also work great for this, no, not the kind with all the stuff already on them
that you warm in the microwave. These are naked, skinless, frozen pieces of
real chicken. If you are a wing person, buy the skinless, boneless, dark meat
chicken portions.

I season liberally (both sides) with my own concoction
of salt, pepper, paprika, sage, thyme, and coriander. Make sure you have thawed
the chicken first. This need not be a big deal, thaw in the microwave, that’s
what I do—because I always forget, or want this chicken at the last minute.

Special
Sauce Recipe – and I am not kidding about this, it
is super. So what is it? Your favorite BBQ sauce and pure honey at a ratio of 1
to 1. For those of you that were math challenged, as I was, that means, equal
amounts of BBQ sauce and honey. Easy!Melt it together in the microwave, this will only take 20-30 seconds.

Now don’t get in a hurry with the sauce, it goes on
when the chicken is mostly done.

Put your chicken on the very hot grill, it should
mark the meat nicely. Turn in two minutes and mark the other side.

When clear liquid starts to bubble through it is
ready for the sauce. Sauce one side, turn after a minute or so, turn and sauce
the other side, turn once more. The BBQ sauce should blacken around the edges
of the meat.

Serve on hamburger buns, hotdog buns, or whatever
you have. Goes great with chips, potato salad and a fine, chilled, diet soda.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Kitchen disaster, I completely ruined an apple crisp
yesterday, I really miss that crisp. I was so hungry for apple crisp topped
with vanilla ice cream. The problem? It was too sweet, I put the sugar in
twice, at least. My wife, who is a wonderful baker, saved the day. She made
coffee cake with my crisp-like-stuff in the middle. It was terrific!

Think I will stick to cooking and forget the baking!

Well, as we used to say - A good baker will rise to the occasion, it's the yeast he can do.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

One of the great things
about retirement – eating like a little kid again, at least once in a while. My
favorite snacks, these days, seem to always involve chocolate or coconut and it they have
both – WOW !

And if it can be made quickly
and only has four ingredients, all the better. And two of those four ingredients
are chocolate and coconut, I’m a kid again.

Here it is – My Chocolate Coconut Macaroons.
Oh and it only takes ten minutes.

-What You Need-

16 ounces shredded coconut (I like the kind of chunky shredded)

* 1 can (14-15
ounces) sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (you can use the same teaspoon, just fill it twice)

One big 0l’ vat of hot fudge type chocolate (see how to make it below, bonus # 1)

-Getting it Ready-

Mix coconut, sweet milk and vanilla together. (Big bowl, big spoon) Drop about a teaspoonful full, at
a time, of the mixture, onto a very well-greased baking sheet. Bake at 350° for
7- 8 minutes. Cool a bit before taking from sheet. After letting them cool some
more dip half of each macaroon in your favorite chocolate. Makes a whole bunch
of chocolate coconut macaroons. (50 or better)

My easy chocolate – (Bonus recipe) Mix equal amounts of
semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips, melt them in the microwave and use them as
the dip. Works great, we also like almonds and pecans dipped in this chocolate,
hey, try one on the top of each macaroon.

*So what the heck is Sweetened Condensed Milk?

Not to be confused
with Evaporated or Powdered Milk. Condensed milk is cow milk from which water has been
removed. It is most often sold as
sweetened condensed milk with sugar added. Sweetened condensed milk goes all
the way back to Civil War time and is a staple in most home baker’s kitchens. But don't drink it, tastes terrible!

Monday, April 7, 2014

I have posted
a couple of cowboy hash recipes in the past but this one is really good, give
it a try. For this one get out your biggest cast iron skillet – the big black
one in the back of the bottom shelf.

And here is what you will need and all the how to do it stuff!

3 large
potatoes - I prefer nice red potatoes, but any type will work. Cut out the bad
spots, if any, do not peel, cut into smallish, about 1/4 inch chunks. If you
notice red speckles, check your fingers, that’s why I use dull knives (can’t be
too careful)

1/3
green bell pepper, cut into tiny pieces, we are looking for flavor here not the
big crunch

1/2
large onion, diced – You ever notice how bad/strong onions are this time of
year? Cannot wait for my first garden onions, sometime in late June.﻿

Random sunset photo I took last week to make the blog more lively.

1 lb.
Hamburger, you could use sausage here but do not substitute some newfangled
meat or fake meat, that is not hash, it is modern something, not hash

Fry up
the potatoes, pepper, and onion in one big ol’ tablespoon of bacon grease, if
you have it, olive oil if you do not.

As soon
as the potatoes start to soften (only a minute or so) toss in the hamburger in
small pieces and fry it up on medium heat. I turn it up on high myself, super
high if I have it. Maybe that is why the smoke alarm chased the dog out of the
kitchen.

When it
looks about right pour in a ½ cup of frozen corn, keep
stirring and cooking/frying

Now it
is time for the spices, add pepper, sage, a dash of cumin and a bit of thyme. (A
tad more sage than cumin or thyme)The bacon fat should take care of the salt –
but being a well seniored citizen I try to avoid adding salt.

Sprinkle
the top with your choice of shredded cheese (not mozzarella, hey, this is not a
pizza)

Put the
skillet into a warm oven, only about 200

Fry up
a half dozen eggs, pull out the skillet and toss them on top (keep the eggs runny,
over easy or over medium is great)

Serve
with Catsup, sour cream and salsa

This
goes great with a couple of glazed donuts and juice of your choice

Serves
3-6 depending on how hungry everyone is and whether or not Uncle Earl is visiting
– - - AGAIN!

*Just
noticed I used two exclamation marks, or is it exclamation points in this post,
doesn’t matter, anyway, two in one post was my record, guess this post ties a
record. Hey, a record setting post.All
Right! That’s three, new record! (4)

Thursday, February 20, 2014

I get tired of reading what is labeled,
“authentic cowboy trail food,” and one of the first ingredients to some kind of
stir fry they didn’t have, and wouldn’t have eaten if it was available, is avocado
or mushrooms. In my many years studying Western American history I have found no reference to the use of mushrooms
on the trail, and although avocados were commonly available in Mexico, and in the
American Southwest cowboys thought of them as low level food and
most avoided them.

Cowboys ate food very plain, well done,
and salty. They might have tried something with mushrooms or avocados in restaurants,
but not on the trail. Trail food needed to be fast, filling and hot. Following
is a recipe for breakfast on a trail drive.

Warm a flour tortilla or use fresh hot
biscuits
Spread with refried black or pinto beans
*Top with scrambled eggs (in modern day we toss on
some shredded cheese and salsa)

Role the tortilla taco style, or stack
the biscuit halves sandwich style

Serve
with fresh hot coffee and the cowboy was ready for the trail

*Eggs were available in several places along the trail, some dirt farmers made a nice bit of money by selling to ol' cookie as he went north with the beefs.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Puff
Pancakes, also called Dutch Baby Pancakes. I will not call it baby anything on
this ol’ Wyoming boy blog. Except to say, wow, these babies are good. These are
sometimes referred to as a German Pancake and may very well have been the first
puff pastry. They have been around for about a century and evidently some
pancake places either feature them or used to feature them. I have never
noticed them on a breakfast menu, but then we like to cook and go out to eat
when forced.

These are normally listed as breakfast fare
but we like breakfast for supper at our house, cook these up with a side of
sausage or bacon, and you have it.

(I use the blender, forget the mixer,
actually my wife doesn’t trust me with the mixer, or maybe I don’t know which
bowls to use or how to attach whatever attachments are needed).

Dump
in flour and mix it all smooth.

Let
batter sit 10 min or so, you really don’t need to time this step

Get
out your big old cast iron skillet, the ten inch one, if you have it.

Coat
it with melted butter; make sure to get it up the sides all the way. (I was
going to say slather it up with butter but wasn’t sure what slather meant so I
will stick with coat it, even if slather sounds better).

Pour
the batter in and bake 15 min or a little less- when it is golden brown (or
whatever you interpret golden brown to be) it is ready to take out of the heat.

The
pancake will puff up when baking, remove and let sit for a minute or so and it
will collapse, don’t worry it’s supposed to.

*Spread on strawberry or raspberry jelly and
lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Loosen
around edges and slide onto plate

Serve
with butter and syrup

*This
step can also be done a few minutes before taking pancake out of the oven

This
can also be a great campfire dish, baked in a Dutch oven. I have not tried it
but don’t see why it wouldn’t work. That may be the reason I occasionally have
my cooking and baking disasters, but believe I will try it some time.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Travelers on the Oregon Trail were sometime treated
to Johnnycakes. Today we think of these tasty cakes as breakfast fare, but for
weary travelers they were a treat, after a long day, topped with their favorite
homemade jams and jellies, assuming they hadn’t eaten all the sweets the first
few miles out of town. Today we more often top them with melted butter and syrup.
I am not sure who Johnny was or why they named a cake (griddle cake) after him,
but they taste as good today as they did back in Trail days.

Combine all ingredients and mix really smooth. Drop by tablespoon onto hot
greased griddle or skillet. Fry on each side until browned, only a minute or
two. This recipe makes about a dozen 4 inch cakes.
These are fun, quite a bit different from a regular pancake (we added cornmeal
and took out the baking powder) but the taste is special. The taste is kind of
flat, with the first chew, then the taste of cornbread a few moments later.
Very cool!

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About Me

Living in Wyoming, I love everything about the West, including very old and brand new western stories. I have published nine books, all of which are available online as soft covers, or eBooks. In addition to my books, I am an avid blogger and short story writer and have published more than a dozen historical articles, both online and in print. In addition to writing I am an avid reader, photographer, hiker and master gardener. When not reading or writing, I can be found playing golf or with camera in hand snapping photos.